---That Evening---
Having made it safely to Ellsworth Air Force Base, the situation here was much better than it had been in Washington. Due to being in a much more sparsely populated state, the base had to deal with far less enemies than a lot of other locations. On top of that the surrounding areas were mainly flat so there wasn't a lot of obstacles for the enemy to sneak up behind. After enjoying a warm meal together, we all sat down and waited for Jeong's call.
"Do we know when he is going to call?", Juri complained, "I don't like sitting around, and waiting for stuff to happen?"
"I don't blame you...it is boring...", Mai agreed stifling a yawn.
"He should call soon, or I will call-", I started to say as I got a call notification on my laptop.
Answering it, Jeong apologized for the delay and said he had General Phillips on the phone. Connecting several groups together for this call, I saw General Phillips and the team back home come up first. Thanking the General for taking some time to talk with us, he nodded his silently.
"So how bad does it look?", I asked wanting details of what they saw.
"If I am being honest...it doesn't look good at all.", Phillips said with a grim look, "We are camped out ten miles from Raccoon City, and...well it's easier to show you."
Turning his web camera around, we saw a scene straight out of Doom. The ruins were swarming with Demons, Undead, and what appeared to be an Archdemon. Gripping my shirt tightly Ilulu, Zero Two, and Lucy looked like they had seen a ghost. Judging by the petrified looks on their faces, they had seen the Archdemon before.
"Is everything okay?", I inquired pulling them onto my lap.
"No...that one is one I saw before.", Ilulu whimpered, "He is mean and abusive, he tormented me in my dreams when I was locked up."
"Yeah...he is terrible, he likes tormenting people for fun.", Lucy said glaring at the screen.
"Hold on, are you saying you have seen them?", Phillips replied in shock.
"She was subjected to Umbrella's experiments.", I informed him, "The GATE Fragments we are after were used on them extensively, and they have seen glimpses of another world. It would be fair to say that they have seen literal Hell."
"Ah...", Phillips replied looking a little sad they had suffered so much.
"At this point they aren't leaving the city limits, but there has to be millions of them there.", Walker stated, "Looks like we are in for a shitstorm, and they are packing heat. Some of these monsters we haven't seen before."
"Victor, you can open portals to get extra boots in right?", Payne asked me, "It sounds like we will need as many forces in as we can. With you on the ground, this is our best chance of eliminating the majority of the threat permanently."
Passing along information that Demon Sightings and Mutant Undead had vanished across the globe, Red Queen was certain those that remained were only at Raccoon City. Eliminating them now left on the normal Undead alive which anyone with a gun or decent martial arts training could kill. Insisting now was the time to finish them off while we had them in one place, everyone looked at me certain this would work.
"I can, certainly do so and any military forces that can be gathered in places we have been too can also assist. Naval forces can fire through the portals to add further support to the efforts as well.", I said noticing the very subtle rise and fall of the ground in Raccoon City, 'There is something very big under the city...'
"We will do all we can to end this.", Ford stated with a serious look, "Between what you have in Alaska, and our combined forces we should be able to do it. It won't be easy, but it is doable."
"Agreed, we don't have much of an option at this point.", Phillips said, "This is likely our only opportunity as they might be trying to use the fragments you are after to bring a greater power to our world. We can't allow them to bring anything else here, we have lost too many people to not take this opportunity."
Spending an hour going over plans, backup plans, and what defensive measures were needed we ended the call so people could sleep. Based on the view Phillips showed us, it stood to reason that the undiscovered area on my map was actually part of Davoth's world. If that was correct, the rise and fall of the earth meant there was likely a powerful Titan living under there. In the even there was one, I was the only one capable of fighting it. Earth didn't have the firepower to harm a Titan, they needed a Crucible or Atlans weapons to bring it down for good.
Deciding to clear my head, I went away from the base from the base for a bit to think.
'I need to have countermeasures in place in case one is there.', I thought looking at options in my item shop, 'Depending on how this plays out I may have to demonstrate a lot more power than I wanted too. Knowing Davoth he is going to have a backup plan, and based on what he said I know where he will aim. Bringing Shizuka and company to the battle is just as dangerous as leaving them at home.'
Thinking of how to best address this, I was in a tough spot. If humanity realized that I could have ended this nightmare with a snap of my fingers, would they think I was a God or maybe that I was as bad as my father? I didn't want to be one, I wanted a normal family life and to help Clark out as I could. Suddenly using so much power might isolate my family from the rest of humanity, and make them suffer isolation. If it were just me I could survive, but I didn't want to drag them down with me.
"Victor, don't worry about it so much.", a voice chuckled as a silver haired man with ruby eyes patted me on the back, "Believe me, it's easier to just embrace the power over hiding it. Hiding it all the time causes more problems than it solves."
"Umm...who are you?", I replied.
"Name's not important, but I am one of the people Clark reincarnated. I noticed you were having issues coming to terms with potentially exposing your true strength. Clark and I both wrestled with out of concerns for our families.", he told me, "Listen kid, take it from someone who used to always hold back all the time...it's not worth it. Showing restraint when needed is acceptable, but doing it all the time is bad. You are going to fight enemies that will use everything they can to hurt the people you care about. In my world, one of my wives got injured trying to stand up for me one evening at a family party. Some hot shot tried to pick a fight and I wanted nothing to do with him because I felt it was beneath me."
Telling me that the man in question became enraged when he turned him down, and struck his wife when she jumped in front of him. She knew he could have tanked the shot without a problem, but she didn't want to see someone hit her husband. Seeing her fall to the ground unconscious, he told me that it made him furious at himself for allowing that to happen.
"I show my family and our world just how terrifying my power was. I erased him, his family, and his servants from existence with a single spell.", he chuckled thinking back, "It didn't stop people from trying to use my loved ones as leverage, but it did limit the number of people willing to help them."
"I get what you are saying, but they will say I could have ended this problem a long time ago.", I remarked, "My fear is that having lost so many people that humanity will think I wanted their suffering to continue."
"No, you only gained access after Clark met with you. You can honestly look at them, and say you didn't have the means to prior to that meeting.", he laughed, "At this point it is very unlikely they will say that. They just want this to end so they can have time to mourn and recover. Believe me, you will see plenty of worlds like this one as you work with Clark. He really fucked up big time."
"Do you really have to phrase it like that?", Clark said appearing in front of us, "I already get it from my wives, I don't need it from you too."
Laughing at that, the silver haired man told him he had to give him a hard time sometimes just to lighten the mood. Reminding the man that he had many fuck ups too, he admitted he had plenty of them.
"Do I want to ask?", I questioned.
"Let's just wiping a solar system out of existence isn't out of the question for me.", the silver haired man laughed, "I...I may have taken an insult about one of my pregnant wives a bit too far."
Understanding what I needed to do, my line in the sand was when someone targeted my family. Sure I could ask Clark to spare them from reincarnating, but I would be guilt ridden if I let something happen to them. I made up mind to show Davoth my full power if he decided to push me hard enough.
"Anyways kid, if you need any help the Clark and the five of us will jump in.", the silver haired man laughed, "Isn't that right Clark?"
"The last time we did that we destroy a universe...", Clark sighed like he had heard this story many times.
"Seriously!?", I gasped, "You just did that on accident!?"
"It wasn't an accident.", the silver haired man teased, "Three of Clark's wives, prior to their marriage, were almost assault on a certain world. Clark brought us in due to some...well you will know when it happens because you were there, the future you anyways. Anyways, the five us took care of the trash while Clark went to find his wives. When he found them...well that universe didn't last very long."
"Future me? So wait you know my future self?", I questioned.
"Yeah, he would have come but it would have caused a paradox.", Clark told me, "Either way, you got this Victor. I know you can make the right decision."
"What he means to say is...", the silver haired man said brushing his hair back, "Rip and Tear in a Menacing Fashion!!"
Trying not to laugh at that, I thanked the two of them for their help. Leaving me alone again I purchased and upgraded items I needed, and returned to camp in a much lighter mood. Hearing Ryu and company already sound asleep in their quarters, I found my family getting ready for bed. Noticing that we had guests again, I asked what they were doing.
"I thought we made this clear already.", Juri said.
"You are stuck with us.", Laura told me.
"I...I am just here because I wanted to repay you for saving my life.", Mika informed me.
"I knew Juri was going to make herself at home, I didn't expect the two of you to do the same.", I chuckled.
Telling me they could leave if I wanted, I said they were fine to stay. Plopping into bed, all of us were soon fast asleep
---Next Day---
The next morning, I woke up early and quickly got changed. Heading out to plane, I got to work making upgrades to the defenses. Changing the nine gun placements from .50 caliber machines to plasma cannons, each placement had it's own independent power supply as the plane engines weren't nearly powerful enough to power them. Once that was done, I started to fill the bomb bay with special photon bombs that should be able to harm the enemy. Filling it as much as I could, leaving enough room for our crew, I then started doing some work on the engines.
"So this is where you were.", Rika said finding me working on Engine 2, "Where's the coffee?"
"I haven't made any, I am trying to make sure all of us make it home.", I chuckled.
"Victor, you can't spoil women and then just pull the rug out from under us.", Rika exaggerated, "What are we supposed to do with out coffee?"
"The mess hall has coffee.", I replied.
"It is cheap, mass produced coffee!", Rika refuted.
"Give me ten minutes, and will make coffee.", I sighed giving her a smirk.
"Thank you dear.", she replied with a playful wink, "You are the best."
Once I finished up with the engine, I made an extra large pot of coffee for my lovers since they had become coffee snobs. I didn't really blame them though, since my item store allowed me to buy whatever I wanted I had been buying Caribou Coffee. It was really good stuff so I understood why they preferred it.
"Ah...that's the stuff.", Rika sighed with relief.
"Agreed, nothing beats a good cup of coffee.", Yuko remarked, "So Victor, what exactly are you doing to the engines?"
"Increasing our fuel mileage and increasing the output. Depending on how this goes, I may need some of you to do bombing runs.", I stated.
"Oh okay.", Oriha said trying to contain her excitement terribly.
Glancing over to her, she was bouncing in her seat with excitement.
"Before you ask, you will be the bombardier. Out of everyone here, you have the most experience and I am trusting you.", I told her.
Stopping her excited bounce, she looked at me to see if I was messing with her. Up till now we gave her a hard time about things, but right now I was being dead serious. Realizing this, Oriha lit up with pride as she knew this was her chance to earn some respect from the others.
"I will do my best Victor!", she stated with a proud smile, "I will make sure we deliver the maximum amount of damage possible."
"I am glad to hear it.", I chuckled, "I will go over the bomb type on the plane when we get close to our final destination."
---Afternoon---
Currently flying over the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains, the Ruins of Raccoon City were coming into view. We were still several miles aways, but the fallout from my meteor strike stuck out like a sore thumb. Seeing the scorched ground, burnt trees, and craters around the area all were tell tale signs we were close.
"You really did a lot of damage on the place kid.", Nathan laughed looking at the destruction.
"Yeah he did.", Yoko agreed looking at massive craters dotting the landscape.
'Where is the flex seal tape guy when you need him...', I thought chuckling to myself.
As we started our descent into camp, we got an in-person view of the army amassed in the ruins. The numbers were about on par with Incheon, but now that I could see the area myself I knew there was a Titan under there. I was hoping it was a normal Titan, and not one of the unique ones that gave the Real Slayer troubles.
Touching down on the makeshift runway they had constructed for us, we got out and greeted General Phillips and company. Shaking hands, we headed over to their Command Center to talk about any changes that had occurred since the meeting the night before.